Libertyville Teen Expects To Learn From Slims Pros

Kaoru Shibata, 14 years old, can`t think of any reason to be nervous about playing in a tennis tournament Friday with pros twice her age and double her experience.

The Libertyville teenager has nothing to lose and a lot she can learn as one of four Chicago-area wild cards entered in a qualifying tournament for the $150,000 Virginia Slims of Chicago.

``It doesn`t count as anything for me,`` says Shibata, ``so I`m not worried about it. I don`t know if I`ll do very well but I`ll get to see how the pros play. It should give me an idea of how to practice.

``My goal is to win one round. I`d like to get that far.``

The other three wild cards in the 32-player qualifying tournament are 16- year-old Holly Lloyd of Deerfield, 16-year-old Linda Harvey-Wilde of Lake Zurich High School and 16-year-old Julie McKeon of Glenbrook North High School. McKeon won the Illinois high school singles championship two weeks.

Virginia Slims tournament officials make a point of giving the four wild- card spots to local players to increase interest in the tournament. Only one, Shibata, earned her spot directly. She won the prequalifying tournament at Mid-Town last weekend. The others, though, are some of the top players in the Chicago area.

Officials did the same with the two wild-card spots in the main draw. Those two places have been given to Mary Lou Piatek-Daniels of Munster, Ind., and Chicago`s Katrina Adams. Neither have to play in the qualifying tournament. They go straight to the main tournament, which is Monday through Sunday at the UIC Pavilion.

Adams` slot was in doubt Thursday as tournament officials awaited word on whether Steffi Graf, the No. 1 player in the world, was going to be a late entry into the Chicago field. When Graf decided not to play here, Adams was assured of the wild card.

Adams was an All-America at Northwestern the last two years. She has dropped out of school for a year to travel the women`s circuit and to see how she fares.

The qualifying tournament is at Mid-Town Tennis Club at 10 a.m. Friday, 2 and 6 p.m. Saturday and noon on Sunday. Four players will advance from this tournament into the 32-player Virginia Slims tournament next week. Martina Navratilova is the top seed. Hana Mandlikova, Helena Sukova and Zina Garrison also are entered.

Navratilova will be in Chicago with a new coach, Tim Gullikson. He replaces Randy Crawford, who replaced Mike Estep a year ago.